Jordana
by Miryang
Summary: The simple ticking of a clock, the passing of time. She can't shake away what happened that fateful night. No one can. They have to pick up where they left off and forget this even happened. What happens when it all returns on one case? One case that can finally bring the lives of two agents together? Anything can happen, and it all starts with the simple ticking of a clock.
1. Happy Anniversary

**Disclaimer: **I wish NCIS was mine. ;-;

**R&R**!

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**Jordana**

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**Happy Anniversary  
**

_Thump! Thump! Thump! _She was trying to hold onto the door for as long as she can. Without a lock, it didn't serve much purpose for her, but it was her only protection.

The noises of loud, stomping footsteps frightened the woman. Her blonde hair stuck onto her clammy forehead. She held onto the door tighter, palms sweaty. A door opened, and the footsteps drew closer and closer until ...

Ziva cowered into DiNozzo as the frantic screams of the woman were heard. Ziva knew she shouldn't be frightened about the fate of the woman, but these movies always her feel afraid... like... like...

What was the American expression, again?

Like a donkey in dilation? ... That didn't make any sense.

Like...

_"A damsel in distress," _the sardonic voice echoed.

Ziva shivered as her head nodded in agreement with the voice.

_"How cute,__" _the voice mused. _"But it's a pity you will never see the light of the world again."_

The woman screamed aloud and plead with her captor, but it was no use. A sickening slice was heard, and the woman was dead. Ziva cowered into DiNozzo again, shaking with fear. She buried her face in his chest. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and smelled the woody scent of his cologne.

She felt Tony's head turn to stare at her quaking figure.

"Is Ziva David, the ass-kicking super ninja, _scared_?"

Ziva opened her eyes and lifted her head off his chest. She met his smirking face with a frown and smacked his arm.

"No," she insisted. "I am not scared."

Tony's eyebrows turned up, and he looked at her strangely. She turned her head, and focused her attention on the movie. His stare was burning holes into the side of her head. She could feel it.

The villain dragged the woman's bloody body to the dark front yard. He laid her body by the stairs, and dragged a body bag from underneath the porch. He stared at the blonde slowly, before sighing. _"I loved you, Denise. I loved you. I did _everything _for you, but you just _had _to speak the truth! This is the co__nsequence. This is _your _punishment. __What an awful waste of such a pretty life," _ the evil man laughed. Ziva shakily sucked in a deep breath. Clearly this villain knew his victim in a personal level. Wait..._what_?! Ziva released the breath she had been holding in and rolled her eyes subconsciously. Ugh, her NCIS skills were working overtime. Ziva pinched her thigh impatiently. She pushed all thoughts of work out of her mind, and tried to focus on the movie.

The villain zipped the bloody body bag and paused. He caressed the woman's cheek with a black gloved hand. _"Oh, we could've had children. Two sons and a daughter. Joshua, Abraham, and Lilly__. They would've been our pride and joy, but alas...you had to throw that away" _He zipped the bag and hoisted it up his shoulder. As he lugged the bag away, blood drops leaked out and onto the ground.

_Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip..._

The TV suddenly paused and the lights started flickering. Ten seconds later, the lights died out. Ziva clutched Tony's arm in fear. It was dark in Tony's apartment, but not dark enough. Tony and Ziva could see the shapes of the furniture, books, and various objects in his apartment. She sighed, and ran her fingers through her hair.

"At least we can see...somewhat." Tony nodded in agreement.

"Well...what is going on?"

"I don't know," he said, confusion evident in his tone. "It could be just a power outage."

"Power outage?" Ziva said dumbly.

"Yeah...unless it's somebody's nice idea of a prank." Tony glowered and picked up his phone. He tried pressing the number to the guard of his apartment building. He tried dialing the number twice.

"Uhh, Ziva?"

"What, Tony?"

"There's no reception here..."

"What? That's not possible. You paid your phone bill, haven't you?" Ziva let go of her grip on Tony's arm and stared at him. Her face was so close to his, he could see the seriousness in her eyes.

"Well, yeah!" he said defiantly. "Of course I pay my bills! Do _you_!?"

Ziva snorted and got up from the couch. She stumbled blindly in the darkness, ramming her knee on the edge of the table. She cursed, and clutched her knee.

Tony stared at Ziva's form with worry. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, yeah... I'm fine," she mumbled. She got up and groped the table, searching for her phone. "Aha!" She grabbed her phone, and looked at Tony. "What's the number?"

"Uhh, 101-8796."

Ziva tried dialing the number, and she stared at Tony blankly. "Uhh," she said slowly.

"What?! Just say whatever you wanna say, Ziva." Tony was panicking.

"I'm not getting any reception either."

"Are you serious?"

"Do you think I would be kidding in a moment like this?"

"Err, no..." Ziva got up from her position by the table. She sat back onto the couch and smacked the back of Tony's head.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"For being a complete idiot."

"Wow, thanks for being so comforting. Ya know, if we weren't in a power outage I'd be on to you for being scared," Tony leered over Ziva and waved his arms around like a ghost. "Ooh, I'm a ghost and I'm out to get yoou!" He grabbed Ziva's shoulders and dragged her to him. Ziva let out a dry laugh, and wriggled her way out of Tony's grasp.

She walked towards the window, and stared outside. Every building still had light and the telephone lines were still up. There was no storm, just a perfect night with stars twinkling and the moon glowing. She placed her ear to the wall adjoining Tony's neighbor. Their TV was on and so was a radio. Ziva's eyes shot up and she ran to the other wall. Placing her ear next to it, she heard a microwave running and the noise of someone typing on a computer or laptop. She slowly walked behind Tony and placed her hands on his shoulder.

"We are being pranked," she stated.

"What?"

"Your two neighbors have electricity, the whole city has electricity, and no telephone lines are down. There is no storm. It's a cloudless night and there are stars about."

"Are you _serious_?" Tony groaned. He pinched the bridge of his nostril and walked towards the power generator** [1]** in his apartment. He looked around and heard Ziva's footsteps following him. He heard a shuffle behind one of the drawers in the room. He pushed the drawer back and pulled out the culprit.

The culprit had a baseball cap on and sunglasses. Tony scoffed and threw the cap behind his shoulders. Ziva caught the hat. He yanked the sunglasses off and placed them on the counter by the kitchen. He grabbed the culprit's chin and lifted it up only to reveal...

"_McGee!_" Tony yelled. "What the _hell _are you doing here?!"

"McGee?" Ziva said questioningly. "Why is McGee tampering with your generator?"

"Erm," McGee said sheepishly. He stared at the open door behind Ziva. The door which led to the guest bedroom** [2]**. Ziva and Tony turned around and the lights came back on.

"Surprise!" yelled Abby. She held a chocolate cake in her hands and handed it to Ziva. "Sorry we scared you guys, but McGee and I knew you wouldn't want a party so we just made one for you."

"You _made _one for us?" Ziva stared at Abby in shock.

"Well, yeah. You guys would make an excuse and McGee and I both know that tonight is your movie night so we just rigged the generator, bought a cake, and tada! Party for you!" Abby said all of this with a great smile. "Here's to your partnership anniversary!"

"Aww, thanks, Abby," Tony said sweetly. He grabbed the cake from Ziva's hand and led them to his kitchen.

Ziva just stared at Abby in confusion. "So...you didn't do anything to our cell phones?"

Abby turned around and gave a confused look at Ziva. "No... what cell phones?"

"Our cell phones. They didn't have reception. No telephone lines are down and we paid our bills. Our cell phone companies would not have disconnected our services."

Abby opened her mouth, but no words came out. Ziva stared around the room slowly, hearing the faint beeping of an electronic item.

"Do you hear that?" she whispered. Tony, frosting all over his mouth, stared at Ziva.

"Washf?"

Ziva grimaced. "Do not talk with your mouth full." She walked towards the noise. The noise came from the drawer next to the generator. The drawer where McGee was found. She opened the first drawer and found nothing. She opened the second. Nothing. The third...

She let out a gasp and ran towards the door. "Run!" she shouted. Everyone followed her in pursuit.

It was all too late though.

_00:05_

_00:04_

_00:03_

_00:02_

_00:01_

They only made it to the door when the bomb exploded.

_00:00_

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**[1] **In my imagination, Tony's apartment has a power generator. It is located in the room next to the kitchen. So think of it this way:

- living room

- kitchen

- generator/storage room

**[2] **Tony's apartment also has a guest bedroom. Tony's bedroom is faar away from the kitchen. It's located near the living room. There's a door located more near the generator/storage room that's still close to the kitchen. When you open that door there's a guest bedroom. I know this doesn't fit for an apartment, but hey. This is a fan fiction. _Anything _can happen.

Love it? Hate it?

**R&R!**


	2. The Aftermath

Thanks for the first four reviews!

**raerobgal - **Omg, I was reading some Teen Titans (RobRae) fics of yours before checking to see if anyone else had reviewed my stories. XD

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**The Aftermath  
**

Ash and debris were littered on the ground. Rubble was piled everywhere. The generator room, guest room, and part of the kitchen suffered the most damage.

Ziva coughed, dust going into her lungs. "Tony?" She patted the top of the rubble she was slightly buried underneath. Her eyes were irritated, various miniscule pieces of debris clinging to her eyelashes. She swiped at them furiously. They threatened to enter her vision anytime. Her hands weren't helping either. They were dirt-stained and her fingernails were clogged with concrete and dirt.

"Ziva?" came Abby's scared call. Ziva shook her head, grabbed the edge of her shirt and fruitlessly wiped her eyes. If she was going to find her friends, she had to see. The dirt on her shirt didn't help her situation, but it allowed her to see. Nothing was going to fall into her eyes like a pesky eyebrow.

"Abby?" Ziva called hesitantly. She shimmied out of the rubble she was underneath and carefully walked towards the source of the noise.

"Ziva, I'm right here." Ziva walked too far and yelped in shock. Abby grabbed her pants leg and yanked her back. "I'm right here, Ziva," she whimpered. "What's going on?"

Ziva knelt down and dug into the rubble, trying to dig Abby out. She wiped her clammy forehead with the side of her palm. "I...I'm not sure," she mumbled. "I remember the movie, the 'power outage'," she added those words with an eye roll, eliciting a laugh from Abby. Ziva's heart dropped. It wasn't an Abby laugh. It was a dry laugh, a laugh without emotion. A laugh Abby would give whenever she gave up and didn't know what to do.

"I also remember the cell phones. They weren't working and when I asked you if you had tampered with them in any possible way. You had no idea what was going on. Then I focused on hearing something that would be detected to those focusing on finding it."

"What did you find, Ziva?"

"More like heard," she growled. With Abby's help, Ziva had managed to clear away most of the rubble. She grabbed Abby's outstretched hand and pulled her out. Abby stared at her clothing, but shrugged.

"It's useless to just brush away the dust. It's gonna come back. It always does," she murmured. Her eyes stared off to the far distance. Ziva didn't notice.

"Let's find McGee and Tony. They surely need our assistance." Ziva took a hold of Abby's hand and dragged her towards a suspiciously large pile of rubble. Abby snapped out of her daydream and hurriedly followed Ziva.

Ziva pushed the outer layer of rubble away. "Tony? McGee?"

A hand pushed its way out of the hole Ziva created and pushed some rubble away. A larger hole was created in effect. Ziva and Abby quickly went to work, trying to clear the rubble. As soon as they finished, they helped their friend up.

"Thank goodness," said McGee. "That was awful."

"You're lucky you're alive," Ziva said. Meanwhile, Abby had wandered off and started moving piles of rubble. She let out an audible gasp catching the attention of the conversing agents.

"Guys," she whispered. "You have to see this."

Ziva and McGee ran towards Abby and stared at the pile of rubble. It was Tony, and he was unconscious. "Oh my God, he's not... _dead _is he?" McGee muttered.

"No, he's still alive... barely. We gotta get him out of this and give him medical attention." Abby's eyes widened in horror and she dropped down to her knees, digging and digging. McGee moved to the other side and helped Abby. Ziva backed up slowly and headed towards the door. Or, what was _left _of the door.

"I'm getting help," Ziva said without acknowledging her friends' answers. She rammed her shoulder and broke the broken half of the door. She stood outside and looked left and right. No one was there.

Of course no one was there. It was probably 1 AM in the morning. If anything, Tony's neighbors had probably heard the explosion and had called 911 already.

The noise of the sirens alerted Ziva about her suspicions. She ran towards the elevator and pressed the down button multiple times. When the elevator didn't open, she ran the opposite direction towards the stairwell. She took the stairs two at a time, jumping over rails if possible. As she neared the front door, she was greeted with a police officer pushing her back.

"Ma'am," he started, "I'm afraid you can't leave the building. There's been a reported explosion here in room 24A and we are here to investigate this matter. Please stay in the lobby until someone can pick you up."

"You don't understand," Ziva cried. "I am an NCIS Agent and I was _in _that explosion. My friends are in there, and one of them is knocked unconscious. If you don't send medical help right away, he might _die_."

The officer looked at Ziva skeptically. "NCIS, eh? Got any proof?"

Ziva fumbled around, checking her pockets. She threw up her hands in frustration and glared at the officer. "I don't have my badge with me."

"I'm sorry, then, ma'am. You have to stay in the lobby until someone can pick you up."

"Actually, she doesn't have to do that," came a voice. Ziva's eyes shot up and she smiled weakly.

"Gibbs!" she laughed aloud. "Thank _goodness _you are here. This... this... officer won't allow -"

"I got it, Ziva," Gibbs said smiling. He patted Ziva's shoulder and stared at the officer. "I am NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and this is NCIS Special Agent Ziva David and she's with me."

"I'm sorry for any possible delay I may have created," the officer said, backing away and nodding his apology. Gibbs directed Ziva towards the stairwell.

"What happened, Ziva?"

"I was watching a movie with Tony when McGee tampered the generator causing a power outage. At first we tried to call the guard but there was no reception. No telephone towers were off. I overheard the neighbors using electronic equipment without a worry. I told Tony were being pranked so he went into the generator room. He caught McGee."

Gibbs looked at Ziva. He gave her his classic _What-On-Earth-Are-You-Saying? _look.

"OK, Abby was planning a surprise party," Ziva said quickly. Gibbs laughed dryly.

"I have to hand it to Abby. She's always finding ways to make people happy or surprise them."

Ziva raised her eyebrows, acknowledging Gibbs's comment. "Well, we were about to eat cake when I asked Abby about her possible tampering with our cell phones. She had no idea what happened. I heard the light beeping of an electronic item I started checking the drawers in the generator room. There was a _bomb_, Gibbs. A _bomb_," Ziva stared at Gibbs, fright evident in her eyes.

"Ziver," Gibbs put his hands on her shoulders. He put two fingers on her chin and gently pulled her head upwards. With an even stare, he smiled softly before continuing, "we will catch this bastard and he will pay for what he did."

Ziva let out a deep breath and nodded. She motioned upwards and the two continued their fast paced walk up the stairs.

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"שלב אחד להשלים,"a man in a iron-straightened suit said **[1]**. He swiveled his chair towards the man sitting next to him. The two men stared straight ahead towards the Israeli man on the video chat feed.

"שלב שני מתוך ארבעה ללכת," they said in unison **[2]**. The three Israelis grinned wickedly. The man in the suit minimized the feed and pulled it towards the left side of one of their various computer screens. His partner tapped various buttons on a tablet and keyboard, pulling up multiple documents.

The man in the suit pointed towards a certain document. The image of a smiling woman with long hair was on the left side of the paper. Personal information on the woman was plastered in organized boxes.

The man's partner chuckled softly before isolating all documents and articles related to the woman. He pulled them all up to the main computer screen. The name of the woman and her birthdate were shown in large font as a header. There was a dash and a word after her birthdate. This was to notify the men and their team, who were located in a separate area from the two men, whether the woman was alive or not.

The man in the suit tapped on his tablet and pulled up security footage feed from the building the woman was located in. As she turned the corner of the stairwell, she stared straight into the security camera. The expression in her eyes were unreadable, but frightening nonetheless. The stare and the header had an all too ghostly feel in the tight, cramped space the two men were in.

_Ziva David_

_November 12, 1982 - Present_

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**[1] **Quick Note:This is in Hebrew. The Google translator loves giving me odd (and off) formatting whenever I try to copy-paste Hebrew onto FF, so here's a quick warning. Whenever you see Hebrew in my stories, weird formatting will possibly occur. The Hebrew means, "Phase one complete."

**[2] **"Phase two out of four to go."

Good, bad? **R&R **because it is a crime not to! ;]


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